'The Practice' Returning, but Minus Some Stars

By BILL CARTER

Published: May 21, 2003

After much deliberation, ABC decided last week to bring back its long-running but recently struggling drama "The Practice," and even flew the show's stars to New York to parade them in front of advertisers during its presentation of its new fall season.

Now about half the people who walked across that stage are out of work. The show's production company, David E. Kelley Productions, confirmed yesterday that Dylan McDermott, the show's lead actor, as well as five other cast members, including Lara Flynn Boyle and Kelli Williams, have been dropped from "The Practice."

The decision to make wholesale cast changes in a show after seven years is highly unusual, but according to several people involved with the show, it reflected both the dismal season "The Practice" endured and a conclusion by Mr. Kelley, the show's creator, that he needed to make significant creative changes.

In January, when ABC moved "The Practice" out of its longtime slot on Sunday at 10 p.m., where it had thrived, to Monday at 9 p.m., it suffered a ratings falloff.

ABC waited until the last minute to renew "The Practice" for another season, and then agreed to give the show its Sunday night spot back only if it could cut the license fee almost in half, to about $3.5 million an episode from about $6 million.

Mr. Kelley, one of television's most prolific producers, agreed to those terms. In a statement, Mr. Kelley expressed regret that the cast members had to be let go, blaming what he called "economic and creative realities." He declined to comment further. ABC executives also declined to comment.

According to the people involved with the show, the economic reality was dictated by the necessity to cut back on costs to prevent it from running a big deficit this season.

The creative reality, they said, had to do with Mr. Kelley's own decision that he had to take the show in new directions, which would require an overhaul of the cast. One of those involved with the decisions about the show's future said that "it was more than 50 percent the creative needs of the show that drove this decision."

The remaining cast members will be led by Camryn Manheim, Steve Harris and Michael Badalucco — while Mr. McDermott is set to return for four episodes as a guest star. Mr. Kelley, who is said to be trying to revive the show for a run longer than just one more season, will bring in a group of new actors. Some of these may be recognizable stars, an executive who has heard Mr. Kelley's plans said.

Until this season, "The Practice" had been among the most valuable shows for ABC, regularly winning its Sunday night time period. Going into the season, it also commanded the highest prices for commercials of any series on ABC.

That was because its audience profile was among the best on ABC, drawing a high percentage of upper-income viewers.

But the show was also in the last year of its contract with ABC and that meant ABC was facing a jump in the license fee, a prospect that networks seek to avoid with shows that might be perceived to be running low on creative ideas.

ABC had also outbid its rival networks to claim a new drama that it had high hopes for, "Dragnet," a revival of the classic series. Having spent heavily on that new show, ABC needed a favorable spot on its schedule on which to place it, and it had few such spots available.

The network also wanted an established show to anchor a lineup of programs on Monday nights in January following the end of "Monday Night Football." Considering both needs, ABC chose to dislodge `'`The Practice" from Sunday at 10 in favor of "Dragnet," pushing it to Mondays. There the show was buried under competition from established shows like "Everybody Loves Raymond," on CBS, but also from the new blockbuster reality series "Joe Millionaire" on Fox.

But ratings for "Dragnet" fell far short of what "The Practice" had been scoring on Sundays. While "The Practice" had always won its time period and built on "Alias," the show that preceded it, "Dragnet" lost about a third of the "Alias" audience and about four million viewers over all from what "The Practice" had been attracting.

fter much deliberation, ABC decided last week to bring back its long-running but recently struggling drama "The Practice," and even flew the show's stars to New York to parade them in front of advertisers during its presentation of its new fall season.

Now about half the people who walked across that stage are out of work. The show's production company, David E. Kelley Productions, confirmed yesterday that Dylan McDermott, the show's lead actor, as well as five other cast members, including Lara Flynn Boyle and Kelli Williams, have been dropped from "The Practice."

The decision to make wholesale cast changes in a show after seven years is highly unusual, but according to several people involved with the show, it reflected both the dismal season "The Practice" endured and a conclusion by Mr. Kelley, the show's creator, that he needed to make significant creative changes.

In January, when ABC moved "The Practice" out of its longtime slot on Sunday at 10 p.m., where it had thrived, to Monday at 9 p.m., it suffered a ratings falloff.